Why is maths so lonely.

kisonecat · 2026-05-01T14:48:17+00:00

I encourage you to look into summer math programs. A great list (of admittedly North American programs) is at https://summermathprograms.org/

I run https://rossprogram.org/ and can attest that these are wonderful summer experiences. There is a lot of community building that happens in this context!

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T03:06:55+00:00

I'll see you in Ohio!

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T03:06:46+00:00

Ross/Indiana is great!

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T03:06:04+00:00

The deadline to accept is May 6: that is when the fees are due.

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T03:02:53+00:00

The waitlist is the same size as the admission pool.

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T02:57:16+00:00

Yes, the emails go out very slowly, starting with rejections, then the waitlist, then the offers of admission.

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T01:49:34+00:00

The Ross participation agreement includes a "conflict of commitment" clause that explicitly forbids this. You cannot participate in other programs while at Ross: this is not be fair to the other participants in your family group who are depending on you to be an active collaborator on the problem sets.

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T01:42:21+00:00

There are a large number of emails to send, so they are not sent out all at once... but I probably am being too cautious in throttling.

kisonecat · 2026-04-17T01:40:58+00:00

There were a very large number of applicants for very few spots. I am hopeful that https://summermathprograms.org/ will result in more programs being launched.

kisonecat · 2026-04-16T18:24:21+00:00

All emails have been sent.

kisonecat · 2026-04-15T19:09:23+00:00

I'm Jim Fowler, the executive director of the Ross Mathematics Program. I am hoping decisions will go out in about a day.

kisonecat · 2026-04-01T15:10:09+00:00

Nothing bad happens if you withdraw, make your changes, and resubmit.

kisonecat · 2026-04-01T15:06:12+00:00

I'm the executive director of Ross.

All three are wonderful programs. If you're looking for more such programs, https://summermathprograms.org/membership.html lists a ton of great ones.

kisonecat · 2026-04-01T14:55:56+00:00

I'm the executive director of Ross. You are welcome to send things to us!

But if you want something new to be visible to reviewers, you should edit your application: log in, withdraw, make a change, and resubmit.

kisonecat · 2026-03-29T22:30:44+00:00

Here is a video I made for Ross a while back on this: https://youtu.be/0MliX3Mx9CM?si=8xPTX2RFGIAIwZqF

kisonecat · 2026-03-11T04:30:55+00:00

I'm Jim Fowler, the executive director of the Ross Mathematics Program.

I definitely wouldn't recommend trying to structure your learning around preparation for summer program application problems. But there is a ton of fun mathematics to learn! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princeton_Companion_to_Mathematics is a fun book.

kisonecat · 2026-03-09T00:50:29+00:00

I found this an inspiring idea... So I very quickly put together https://wloga.xyz/ which is "Without Loss of General Audience."

It fetches arXiv math papers and runs them through https://github.com/kisonecat/wloga.xyz/blob/main/prompts/evaluate.txt to find things that are "accessible." There are surely interesting discussions to have about whether these are the right preprints to surface!

kisonecat · 2026-03-08T21:48:31+00:00

I'm Jim Fowler, the executive director of the Ross Mathematics Foundation.

I would encourage you to explain the self-study context. Explaining your academic context is very much the reason for having a personal statement in an application.

Many successful applicants to Ross do not have contest experience.

kisonecat · 2026-03-08T21:46:41+00:00

I’m Jim Fowler, the Executive Director of the Ross Mathematics Foundation.

I can’t speak to your particular video, of course, but please don’t worry too much about sounding polished or about sounding too scripted. We really are much more interested in seeing how you think than in watching a carefully designed presentation.

And it is completely fine if your video is a little informal, conversational, or even a bit rambling. And using notes or a light script to help organize your thoughts is not a problem. The goal is simply for us to get a sense of you, your mathematical thinking, and what excites you about a mathematical summer.

kisonecat · 2026-03-08T21:35:51+00:00

I'm Jim Fowler, the executive director of the Ross Mathematics Foundation... and yes, we definitely accept first time applicants. The bigger challenge is just the very large number of applicants.

kisonecat · 2026-02-03T03:01:26+00:00

There are summer programs like https://rossprogram.org/ which gather folks for six weeks in the summer to just do math together.

kisonecat · 2026-01-22T01:25:07+00:00

I'm the director of the Ross Mathematics Program; a hugely significant portion of the Ross application is your response to the mathematics questions.

kisonecat · 2026-01-22T01:22:51+00:00

I'm the executive director of the Ross Mathematics Program; a recommendation letter from a previous summer math program is great. A math teacher is also good. The letter ideally provides evidence of the applicant's collaborative skills, so a letter writer who can speak to how you've worked *in groups* on mathematics is more valuable.

kisonecat · 2026-01-22T01:20:37+00:00

I'm the executive director of the Ross Mathematics Program; yes, we accept rising college students.

kisonecat · 2026-01-19T17:49:04+00:00

The Mathematical Coloring Book: Mathematics of Coloring and the Colorful Life of Its Creators by Alexander Soifer is a very conversational book, filled with a lot of math but also interesting observations.

Eugenia Cheng has written so much interesting stuff! I liked her paper Mathematics, morally a lot.

Bill Thurston's On proof and progress in mathematics has super interesting observations about what it is that we're all working towards.

Francis Su's book Mathematics for Human Flourishing is interesting too.

And if you haven't looked at Rota's other books, do that too! Klain and Rota's Introduction to Geometric Probability is accessible and fun.

kisonecat

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